Author Philip Roth made a splash this week when he came out of retirement and started tweeting.No, wait. It wasn't really Roth. It was an impostor -- someone who apparently has a reputation for mimicking famous people on the Internet.Turns out social media spoofing is an old trick. And if you do it right, it could make you some money. Remember Chuck Norris Facts?
Ian Spector brought renewed fame to the action hero before Twitter was
even born, with witty one-liners like: "Chuck Norris discovered cold
fusion by pouring two beers into one glass."Around 2005, Spector's website caught fire and since then he's
written five Chuck Norris fact books. The most recent one came out on
Election Day.

Me? I think I'll apply to be Barbara Taylor Bradford's online ego. (That was a joke.)

I'm in the midst of the New Year's Eve Party. I hope you are as well. I'm dashing this post and then rushing upstairs to my granddaughter's room. I promised her nachos and pizza rolls and popcorn (all ready to eat right now) as we watched The Wizard of Oz. I'm sure she'll be asleep within 30 minutes.

Monday,
December 31, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, protests continue,
corruption continues, questions are asked as to why the US supports Thug
Nouri, events of the year in Iraq get reviewed, and more.

Then
came the official end of the war. On December 31, 2011, the country
celebrated "Iraq Day" and the departure of U.S. troops. As Iraq prepares
to mark the anniversary, also known as the "Day of Sovereignty," last
year's celebratory tone has been replaced by a more somber one.

Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political bloc, the Islamic Dawa Party,
called on Iraqis not to become divided along sectarian or ethnic lines
by "malicious schemes." The country has struggled to define itself, as
its government stumbles from one political crisis to another.

Just
as the last U.S. troops withdrew, al-Maliki, a Shiite, moved to arrest
Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, who al-Maliki accused of using
his security detail as a hit squad.

More
recently, a few days before the first Iraq Day anniversary, thousands
of Sunnis took to the streets in Anbar province, a major trade
thoroughfare to Jordan and Syria, to protest al-Maliki's order to arrest
the bodyguards of Finance Minister Rafaie Esawi, a Sunni. The arrest of
Esawi's bodyguards came just hours after President Jalal Talabani, a
Kurd who is widely viewed as a stabilizing political force in Iraq, left
the country to undergo treatment for cancer in Germany.

2012
saw another cholera outbreak in Iraq thanks to Nouri al-Maliki's
refusal to spend any of the billions made off of oil on the Iraqi
people. They lack potable water in most areas. If you don't have
potable water -- safe water -- to drink, you have to boil it before
using it (or add purification tablets) and you better hope you didn't
rush the boil and that the tablets still work. This wouldn't be a
problem if Nouri would fix the public services. He's been prime
minister since 2006, that's six years so the resposibility and the
failure is all on him.

In addition to a lack
of potable water, Nouri's also failed to provide dependable
electricity. All this time later, it's still apparently too much to
expect to have electricity for more than a few hours. Strange because,
before the start of the Iraq War, these electricity shortages weren't so
common. Even something as basic as santiation is beyond Nouri's
capabilities so children -- risking infection and disease -- can be
found playing in the piled up sewage so common on many Iraqi streets.
Nouri's also refused to spend money on the crumbling infrastructure.
This winter, Iraqis saw what Nouri's cheapness has resulted in: Flooding
throughout Iraq, homes falling down from the flooding, people dying in
the homes, people dying from drowning, people dying from electrocution,
people trudging through parts of Baghdad in knee-high water. When you
let the infrastructure fall apart, drainage becomes problematic. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society had to evacuate at least one village this month as a result of homes collapsing from the flooding.

Surely
Nouri's done better somewhere, right? Nope. Iraq is still among the
most corrupt countries as ranked by Transparency International. 176 countries were ranked this year on transparency and Iraq came in as the 169th most transparent country.
Only seven countries were ranked as less transparent. Nouri's long
been accused of skimming off Iraq's funds and his family lives high on
the hog. He also employs his son who is said to be as much of a terror
as Uday Hussein was said to be. Nouri's son is part of current
corruption scandal.

October 9th,
with much fanfare, Nouri signed a $4.2 billion dollar weapons deal with
Russia. He strutted and preened and was so proud of himself. Yet
shortly after taking his bows on the world stage and with Parliament and
others raising objections, Nouri quickly announced the deal was off.
The scandal, however, refuses to go away. TheIraq Times stated
Nouri was offering up his former spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh and
others to protect the truly corrupt -- the truly corrupt -- according to
members of Parliament -- including Nouri's son who got a nice little
slice off the deal. These charges came from Shi'ite MPs as well as
Sunnis and Kurds. Even the Shi'ite National Alliance has spoken
out. All Iraq News noted
National Alliance member and one-time MP Wael Abdul Latif is calling
for Nouri to quickly bring charges against those involved in the
corruption. (The arms deal is now treated by the Iraqi press as corrupt
and not allegedly corrupt, FYI.) Latif remains a major player in the
National Alliance and the National Alliance has backed Nouri during his
second term. With his current hold on power reportedly tenous and
having already lost the support of Moqtada al-Sadr, Nouri really can't
afford to tick off the National Alliance as well. Kitabat reported
MP Maha al-Douri, of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc in Parliament, is saying
Nouri's on a list of officials bribed by Russia for the deal.

The
magic wands. It's a story so old even David Petraeus weighed in at one
point. Nouri's government spent a small fortune purchasing these magic
wands from a British company that apparently didn't also sell magic
beans. You held the magic wand by a car and you 'jogged' in place,
pumping your legs up and down and the magic wand, activated by your
movement, would then detect a bomb if one was present. If you're not
believing it, October, 9, 2009, an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy was exploring the subject at Inside Iraq:

Before
starting telling you what happens in most of the checkpoints you should
know about the "explosives detectors". The device is carried by
security man who stops your car and walk beside it carrying the device.
The device's pointer changes its direction when passed by a car that
supposedly carries explosives.

The
small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being
used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works "on the
same principle as a Ouija board" -- the power of suggestion -- said a
retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who
described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.Still,
the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices,
known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly
every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one
of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical
inspections of vehicles.With violence dropping in the past two
years, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken down blast walls
along dozens of streets, and he contends that Iraqis will safeguard the
nation as American troops leave.

It
wasn't just that US generals laughed at the magic wands, by 2010 even
the British government was disturbed, demanding the devices no longer be
manufactured and suing the company. But Nouri refused to join in the
lawsuit (he apparently only likes to sue the press and politicians) and
insisted that the magic wands continued to be used. Instead of
admitting that he had wasted over one million dollars on magic wands
that didn't work, Nouri put his vanity ahead of the safety of the Iraqi
people. Last November, years after the problem was first discovered, it
was quietly announced that Iraq would finally be getting bomb sniffing
dogs and explosive sensors.

Did he not sue because he got a kickback on the deal? Who knows?

Iraqis
continue to live in poverty and it is a nation of widows and orphans --
over a million orphans we learned as the year wound down. Nouri's
'answer' to that? End the food-ration card system. This system was put
in place in the 90s and provided the Iraqi people with basic staples.
After the start of the Iraq War in 2003, the US government targeted the
food-ration card system. Paul Bremer was only the first US official to
attempt to end it. Ending it would not be easy so they instead worked
on cutting it each year so that it offered less and less. In 2006, when
Nouri became prime minister, he continued the cuts.

This
fall, he decided, with record poverty and unemployment close to 40% in
Iraq, that now was the time to end this program. Cleric and movement
leader Moqtada al-Sadr was the first to call him out and insist this
wasn't happening. Iraqiya and others quickly backed Moqtada and Nouri
was forced to back down (and even tried to claim that it wasn't his idea
-- his Cabinet had planned it out without him). Iraq takes in billions
on oil sales each year. Yet Nouri claimed there was no profit to share
with the Iraqi people. Moqtada also pushed back on that and has been
meeting regularly with the ministries to find out where the money is
going.

It's not going to the Iraqi people.
Well what about justice? Is Nouri providing justice? Early 2012 saw
the Ministry of the Interior visit schools and tell Iraqi students that
Emo and LGBT youth were devil worshippers, were vampires, were perverts
and that they must die. That's appallling and that's Nouri. Nouri is
the Minister of the Interior. How can he be the Minister of the
Interior and the Prime Minister. Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed,
"Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting
power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions,
including the ministers of defense, interior and national security,
while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support." See,
according to the Iraqi Constitution, if you can't appoint a full
Cabinet, you can't become prime minister (someone else is named prime
minister designate and given 30 days to build a Cabinet). But US
President Barack Obama wanted Nouri to have a second term so no rules
applied then (or apply now).

So Nouri had his
Ministry go into schools and egg on violence against Emo and LGBT Iraqis
-- and Iraqis who might be mistaken for Emo or LGBT. There was
worldwide outrage. The story got covered by outlets that normally
didn't even cover Iraq -- such as England's NME and the US' Rolling Stone
magazine. Nouri called off his dogs and tried to lie that the Ministry
of Interior was not involved; however, the Iraqi press quickly printed
the handout the Ministry of the Interior had circulated on its school
visits. Nouri's such a damn liar.

Staying with violence, as noted in the October 15th snapshot, Iraq had already executed 119 people in 2012. Time to add more to that total. Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reported
last night that 10 more people were executed on Sunday ("nine Iraqis
and one Egyptian"). Tawfeeq notes the Ministry of Justice's statement
on the executions includes, "The Iraqi Justice Ministry carried out the
executions by hanging 10 inmates after it was approved by the
presidential council." And, not noted in the report, that number's only
going to climb. A number of Saudi prisoners have been moved into
Baghdad over the last weeks in anticipation of the prisoners being
executed. Hou Qiang (Xinhua) observes, "Increasing
executions in Iraq sparked calls by the UN mission in the country, the
European Union and human rights groups on Baghdad to abolish the capital
punishment, criticizing the lack of transparency in the proceedings of
the country's courts."

Nouri's
also targeted the press. 5 journalists were killed in 2012 (we'll have
more on that near the end of the snapshot). Outlets that report
realities Nouri doesn't like are repeatedly attacked. Both Al Mada and Kitabat were hacked in 2012 following their hard hitting reporting on corruption. Dropping back to Saturday, December 15th:

The Iraq Times reports
that cable channel Baghdadi was surrounded by the Iraqi military on
Friday and they forced everyone out and then shut the station down. They also note that Nouri ordered the closure. The Iraq Times reports
that Iraqiya spokesperson Maysoon al-Damalouji declared today that
Nouri is attempting to rebuild the Republic of Fear (a reference to the
days of Saddam Hussein) and decried the closing of Baghdadiya TV.

The satellite channel's crime? Reporting on the corruption in the Russian oil deal. This month, he also began targeting Fakhri Karim who is the editor and chair of Al Mada
newspaper -- he's had Karim's home surrounded by the US military.
Isn't it strange how in 'free' Iraq, Nouri's always sending in the
military to attack the press. And isn't it strange how the US
government -- even most of the US media -- refuse to call that out? (Friday, he used the military to keep reporters away from the protests in an attempt to ensure that they did not get coverage.)

Nouri is a threat and danger to the Iraqi people.They
voted for change and Barack went around their votes, the democracy, the
Constitution to devise a contract (Erbil Agreement) to give Nouri a
second term.Again, gays are targeted, Sunnis are targeted, Nouri
refused to even have one woman in his Cabinet until there was
international outcry -- and this is who the US government backs.Remember that the next time Barack wants to pretend to give a damn about human rights.

Nouri
is in his second term as prime minister. Why? Barack Obama. In March
2010, Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections. Nouri's State of Law
was expected to win by a wide margin. The Iraqi people had other
ideas. Nouri's State of Law came in second to the Ayad Allawi headed
Iraqiya slate. Per the Constitution, per democracy, per vote counting,
that made Iraqiya the winner and, as such, they were supposed to be
immediately named prime minister-designate (one person from their slate,
most likely Allawi) and then given 30 days to form a Cabinet. Failure
to do so would result in someone else being named prime
minister-designate. This is clearly outlined in the Constitution. But
Nouri didn't want to lose his post. So he threw a public tantrum for
eight months basically refusing to vacate the palace. And he was able
to get away with that because he had the support of Barack Obama.
During this time, the US government didn't argue for fairness or
democracy or rule of law or the Constitution. They went to the
political blocs and told them that they were in the wrong. They told
them they needed to be mature and give. They need to give to the
loser. Grasp that, the US government started a propaganda campaign at
political leaders to get them to give up what they'd won to the loser
Nouri. A few asked questions. Supposedly Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani (currently in Germany receiving medical treatment) got very
short with US Vice President Joe Biden in one phone call (no, not the
one where Joe asked him to let Allawi be president). Talbani finally,
supposedly, had the brains to ask, "What's in it for us?"

Like
a lightening bolt, the US government decided they could give Nouri a
second term by going around the Constitution, by drawing a contract
between the political blocs. This 'inspiration' resulted in the
US-brokered Erbil Agreement. Leaders of political blocs agreed to give
Nouri a second term (and end the eight-month plus stalemate) in exchange
for Nouri agreeing to give them certain things. The primary demand by
the Kurds was that Article 140 of the Constitution be implemented
(finally). Iraqiya's primary demand was that an independent national
security council be created and headed by a member of Iraqiya. Nouri
used this contract to get his second term. Then he trashed the
contract. The White House had given their word that not only was the
contract legally binding but that they would stand by it. They did
nothing.

Washington has little political and no military influence
over these developments [in Iraq]. As Michael Gordon and Bernard
Trainor charge in their ambitious new history of the Iraq war, The Endgame,
Obama's administration sacrificed political influence by failing in
2010 to insist that the results of Iraq's first proper election be
honored: "When the Obama administration acquiesced in the questionable
judicial opinion that prevented Ayad Allawi's bloc, after it had won the
most seats in 2010, from the first attempt at forming a new government,
it undermined the prospects, however slim, for a compromise that might
have led to a genuinely inclusive and cross-sectarian government."

What
was in it for the White House? Well they were allowed to leave behind
US forces in Iraq after the drawdown (wrongly billed as "withdrawal") of
December 2011. They were able to leave "trainers," CIA, FBI,
Special-Ops and more. And the White House is able to add more. Back in
September, Tim Arango (New York Times) reported:

Iraq
and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in
the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training
missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General
Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed
to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.

"Maliki
is heading towards an incredibly destructive dictatorship, and it looks
to me as though the Obama administration is waving him across the
finishing line," Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the London School of
Economics said earlier this year. "Meanwhile, the most likely outcomes,
which are either dictatorship or civil war, would be catastrophic
because Iraq sits between Iran and Syria."

The
latest attacks also came amid continuing anti-government demonstrations
in several Sunni-dominated cities protesting against marginalization by
the Shiite-led government as well as the alleged arrest of hundreds of
Sunnis.

The demonstrators also accused the
Shiite-dominated security forces of arresting women instead of the
wanted male of their family members.

The
protests were first sparked last week after the Iraqi security forces
arrested chief of the Sunni Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi's
protection force and nine bodyguards over charges of terrorism.

The Middle East Monitor offers
this take, "The demonstrators are demanding to an end to what they
allege is the Iraqi government's 'marginalisation and exclusion policy';
they're also asking for the release of prisoners as well as an end to
inhumane treatment in the country's prison."

Protests continued over the weekend. Al Bawaba News noted,
"Pressure is mounting on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step
down, after the largest scale protests so far saw tens of thousands of
Iraqis gather on Friday to call for his removal." All Iraq News reported
that Minister of Defense Saadoun al-Dulaimi received a list of demands
from members of the council of Anbar Province whose citizens passed on
the demands: They want the detention of women stopped, they want
detainees released and Article 4 of the Constitution reviewed. The
Defense Minister was visiting Anbar Province one day after Friday's massive demonstration took place in Falluja (with a conservative estimate of the protesters being 60,000). Al Mada noted that Nouri pronounced Friday's protests in Mosul and Ramadi "uncivilized"; however, rock throwing wouldn't emerge until Sunday.

Mosul is the capital of Nineveh Province. All Iraq News reported
that Council Members have informed the central government in Baghdad
that their citizens demand the release of prisoners an end to Article 4
and an end to the Justice and Accountability Commission. Article 4 is
how Nouri dubs various Iraqi rivals 'terrorists.' And the Justice and
Accountability Commission is what Nouri uses to prevent people from
running in elections. They have no job, they have no real role. Any
Saddam Hussein loyalists would have long ago been captured. But Nouri
uses this Article 4 to destroy his political rivals. Alsumaria added that Nineveh Provincial Council announced Saturday a general strike in solidarity with the protesters. It's a 72-hour strike (medical facilities will not be on strike). Today Alsumaria reports
that Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi has declared that
Parliament will abolsih Article 4. He compares Article 4 to the Sword
of Damocles hanging over the neck of Iraqis.

Atheel (or Ethel)
al-Nujaifi is the governor of the province. He's also the brother of
Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi. Alsumaria notes
that the governor declared Saturday that Nouri al-Maliki can end the
current crisis within 24 hours just be returning the arrested to their
provinces. Al Mada explains that Nouri has repeatedly targeted Atheel al-Nujaifi.

In
October, allegations of torture and rape of women held in Iraqi prisons
and detention centers began to make the rounds. In November, the
allegations became a bit more and a fistfight broke out in Parliament
with an angry State of Law storming out. By December, Members of
Parliament on certain security committees were speaking publicly about
the abuses. Then Nouri declared that anyone talking about this topic
was breaking the law. He continued on this tangent for weeks claiming
this past week that he would strip MPs of their immunity. (The
Constitution doesn't allow for that.) Also this past week, it was
learned that at least four females were raped in a Baghdad prison.

The outrage here is part of what has fueled the protests. Alsumaria notes
the Ministry of Justice's latest spin Saturday: Only women guards are
at these prisons! Whether that's true or not (most likely it is not)
world history demonstrates that when women are imprisoned it's very
common for someone to get the 'bright idea' to sell access to these
women. Greed is a strong motivator. Again, the very claim is doubtful
but if there are no men on staff, that doesn't mean men have not been
present in the prisons. It wasn't enough to silence objections or stop
the protests. Sunday, Al Arabiya noted,
"Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered on Sunday the release of
female prisoners, who were arrested for terrorism charges without
judicial warrants or because of terror crimes committed by their
relatives, to appease to protesters who want to see the scrapping of
anti-terrorism measures in the country, a local website reported."

Protests
continued on Sunday with most of the press attention going to Ramadi
where Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq was involved in an
incident. Chen Zhi (Xinhua) reports
that al-Mutlaq's office issued a statement claiming there was an
assassination attempt on him while he was by the protesters and,
following the assassination attempt, his bodyguards fired on the
protesters. His office also claims that his bodyguards were injured.
Citing witnesses and video, AP states that the bodygaurds fired on protesters who were making demands and throwing "rocks and bottles." AP notes that two protesters were injured by the gunshots. Reuters speaks with local witnesses and ends up with the same sequence of events AP has. Salma Abdelaziz, Yousuf Basil and Mohammed Lazim (CNN) report:

Some
demonstrators Sunday called for al-Multaq, who is Sunni, to submit his
resignation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. Protesters
chanted, "Leave! Leave!" and threw stones at him, witnesses told CNN.

The
deputy prime minister's bodyguards opened fire in an attempt to
disperse the crowd as protesters hurled stones at the stage, Anbar
provincial council member Suhaib al-Rawi told CNN. A protester with a
gunshot wound was among five people injured, al-Rawi said. Details about
the other injuries were not immediately clear.

All Iraq News counts 1 protester dead and four injured. Samantha Stainburn (Global Post) observes,
"It is not known if the injured protests were shot intentionally or
accidentally." The statement al-Mutlaq's office issued can be seen as
an attempt by the politician to cover what happened. Why he was stupid
enough to go to a protest is beyond me. Yes, he is Sunni and, yes, he
is in the Iraqiya slate. But Saleh al-Mutlaq is not popular. He and
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi (also Sunni and Iraqiya) were both
targeted by Nouri in December of 2011. While Tareq ended up having to
leave the country and being convicted of 'terrorism,' Saleh sailed
right through. In May, Nouri dropped his efforts to strip Saleh of his
office.

By that point, there had been months of speculation in
the Iraqi press that Saleh al-Mutlaq had cut a deal to save his own ass,
that he was now in partnership with Nouri al-Maliki. This seemed to be
even more true when Saleh was seen as undermining efforts to get a
no-confidence vote against Nouri as spring was winding down.

Saleh
al-Mutlaq is seen -- rightly or wrongly -- by Sunni Iraqis as someone
who protects himself and does nothing for other Sunnis (whether they're
politicians or average citizens). His actions on Sunday did nothing to
alter that opinion. Today Dar Addustour observes
that Mutlaq was seen as attempting to distract protesters from their
legitimate demands for and that his words were seen as throwing shoes at
the protesters. (Remember, throwing shoes is a major insult in Iraq.) Kitabat adds that al-Mutlaq further insulted the protesters by refusing to get on the platform to address them.

Al Mada notes the Mosul sit-in continued today. They also report
that, according to a police source, six people taking part in a sit-in
in Salahuddin Province were arrested yesterday and that the Salahuddin
Provincial Council is warning Baghdad against ignoring the demands of
the protesters. Alsumaria reports
that Speaker of Parliament al-Nujaifi declared today that the
government must offer real solutions and not fall back on
procrastination.

On death and violence, Mark Sweney (Guardian) notes
that of the 121 journalists killed worldwide in 2012, the International
Federation of Journalists points out five were in Iraq. IFJ notes these are the top countries:

Friday, December 28, 2012

Thank you to all the readers of this site who offer recipes, tips and suggestions. I am really tired of blogging. I do it to do my part to get the word out on Iraq (by reposting C.I.'s Iraq snapshot). In 2012, the other thing that kept me posting was the great e-mails on food and the economy (and dolls, we talked a lot about Barbies here).

Tamara e-mailed a recipe 9 days ago and then a reminder saying, "Don't be scared of it, it doesn't seem like it would taste good but it does."

This is her family recipe for Holiday Dip:

Soften a container of cream cheese. Grate half of a small white onion. Add the softened cream cheese. Add three tablespoons of catsup, add 3 shots of Worcestershire sauce. Mix in a blender.

She noted that the seasoning was less than she does but she didn't want to go too strong.

I did not have time to make it until this week (and would have forgotten without the reminder). And I was leery until the reminder. But it really is good. I made it twice. Once for myself (and my husband ate almost all of it before I could taste) and once for some friends when they came over. The second time, I did add more shots of Worcestershire sauce. I used a total of six.

It really is a good dip. We had it with Tostitos because pita chips had disappeared. (I got pita for the guests. Myself, I'm a salsa and tortilla chips woman. Nothing fancy.)

This pro-austerity mythology aims to distract the
public from asking why peacetime governments can’t simply print the
money they need. Given the option of printing money instead of levying
taxes, why do politicians only create new spending power for the purpose
of waging war and destroying property, not to build or repair bridges,
roads and other public infrastructure? Why should the government tax
employees for future retirement payouts, but not Wall Street for similar
user fees and financial insurance to build up a fund to pay for future
bank over-lending crises? For that matter, why doesn’t the U.S.
Government print the money to pay for Social Security and medical care,
just as it created new debt for the $13 trillion post-2008 bank bailout?
(I will return to this question below.)The answer to these questions has little to do with markets, or with
monetary and tax theory. Bankers claim that if they have to pay more
user fees to pre-fund future bad-loan claims and deposit insurance to
save the Treasury or taxpayers from being stuck with the bill, they will
have to charge customers more – despite their current record profits,
which seem to grab everything they can get. But they support a double
standard when it comes to taxing labor.Shifting the tax burden onto labor and industry is achieved most
easily by cutting back public spending on the 99%. That is the root of
the December 2012 showdown over whether to impose the anti-deficit
policies proposed by the Bowles-Simpson commission of budget cutters
whom President Obama appointed in 2010. Shedding crocodile tears over
the government’s failure to balance the budget, banks insist that
today’s 15.3% FICA wage withholding be raised – as if this will not
raise the break-even cost of living and drain the consumer economy of
purchasing power. Employers and their work force are told to save in
advance for Social Security or other public programs. This is a
disguised income tax on the bottom 99%, whose proceeds are used to
reduce the budget deficit so that taxes can be cut on finance and the
1%. To paraphrase Leona Helmsley’s quip that “Only the little people pay
taxes,” the post-2008 motto is that only the 99% have to suffer losses,
not the 1% as debt deflation plunges real estate and stock market
prices to inaugurate a Negative Equity economy while unemployment rates
soar.

A few of you wrote in about the price of milk. I saw that 'news' story yesterday. It is meant to alarm you, work you up and have you screeching, "Stop! Don't go over the fiscal cliff!"

Don't fall for that crap. If milk goes up to eight dollars a gallon, the milk industry is dead in this country.

Don't be pushed into fear. Remember, we have the power of no. We can say no to scare tactics and we should.

I need to thank Dot. I blog about how I have a great aunt who, each New Year's Eve, must have egg rolls. Not just any but mini-egg rolls. It gets harder and harder to find those each year. Dot e-mailed to say Wal-Green's Nice brand has mini-egg rolls and the stores are carrying them. Dot, I grabbed two boxes for my great aunt today. Thank you.

Friday,
December 28, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, the US Embassy in
Baghdad issues a warning, Iraqis take to the street in protest,
Nouri tries to prevent press coverage, Nouri makes strange noises, the
PUK 'corrects' Nouri's interpretation of the Iraqi Constitution, Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani's doctors issue an update, AFP provides a
valuable public service, and more.

December 28, 2012

Threat
information indicates that terrorist elements may target U.S. interests
in Baghdad, including the United States Embassy, as well as churches in
Baghdad and Kirkuk, on or around December 31, 2012. The U.S. Embassy
in Baghdad urges U.S. citizens in Iraq to exercise caution and to refer
to the current travel warning on our website.

We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Iraq enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at www.Travel.State.Gov.
STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it
easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in
an emergency. If you don't have Internet access, enroll directly with
the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

Contact
the U.S. embassy or consulate for up-to-date information on travel
restrictions. You can also call 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United
States and Canada or 1-202-501-4444 from other countries. These numbers
are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through
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It's
a sign of how much turmoil there is in Iraq currently that it was
little noted in the western coverage of Iraq today. This was the
day dubbed "Friday of Honor" with plans for large protests in Iraq.
Question: If you're the government and you don't want people to know
about the protests, what might you do? Hmmm. . . .

Prashant Rao of AFP,
we are trying to think right now. Okay, so protests are taking place
and Iraq's a failed state and you just made a new corruption list
and, as Al Mada reports,
Baghdad's just been named the worst place to live in the world by the
Mercer Consulting Group. The rains are coming down hard and, as Dar Addustour notes, Baghdad's sunk by rainwater. You're Nouri al-Maliki and you don't want the word getting out about these protests so --

Oh
my goodness, Prashant Rao, you are 100% correct. If the government
doesn't want word of the protests out, the easiest way is to refuse to
allow journalists close enough to the protests to cover them. BBC News observes:

Some
journalists attempting to reach the city were held at an army
checkpoint some 50km east of Ramadi for six hours, and were unable to
cover the demonstration, says the BBC's Rami Ruhayem who was at the
scene.

The government has succeeded in
keeping the protests out of the public eye to an extent, says our
correspondent, but in the process has revealed how nervous it is over
this latest challenge to its authority.

Army
units did, however, bar Baghdad-based journalists from entering Anbar
province, holding teams from AFP and other media at a checkpoint between
Baghdad and Ramadi for more than five hours.They also confiscated their press badges, promising to return them only if they turned back to Baghdad.A
senior security official said that there were "strong preventative
measures to protect the demonstrators", but journalists witnessed dozens
of cars pass through the checkpoint where they were held with no
questioning whatsoever.

Morning Star notes,
"Protesters took to the streets after Friday prayers for the sixth day
of protests calling for Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step
down and for the release of Sunni prisoners." Al Arabiya notes that the protesters had support from Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr, "In
a letter by Sadr sent to the tribal sheikhs, the Islamist leader said
that he supports their protests against Maliki and their effort to hold
unity and thwart sectarianism." Deutsche Welle quotes
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki whining today, "It is not acceptable to
express something by blocking roads, inciting sedition and sectarianism,
killing, or blowing the trumpet of war and dividing Iraq." Sign of a
true despot, civil disobdience is likened to "killing." Because it is a
'killing,' it's a killing of his crafted image, it's an exposure of his
failure as a leader. Ken Hanly (Digital Journal) observes
of the slogan at many of the protests across Iraq "The people want to
bring down the regime," "This is the slogan protesters used in Tunisia,
Egypt, and elsewhere during the Arab Spring."

Kitabat reports
that "millions" came out to protest in Anbar Province today. Their
photo of Falluja shows the large crowd with banners, flags and a huge
photo of Minister of Finance Rafie al-Issawi (last week, Nouri al-Maliki
ordered the arrest of 150 staff and bodyguards working for al-Issawi --
10 have been charged with 'terrorism' and 50 have been released, this
was seen as politically motivated). The Falluja protesters demanded
that innocent people be released from detention and end to the 'terror'
arrests, an end to politicizing the Iraqi military, that Nouri turn
over the soldier who raped the girl in Mosul and more. They chanted for
unity and for an end to sectarianism and Nouri's abusive government. Kamal Naama and Raheem Salman (Reuters) add,
"Around 60,000 people blocked the main road through Falluja, 50 km (30
miles) west of the capital, setting fire to the flag of Shi'ite Iran and
shouting 'out, out Iran! Baghdad stays free' and 'Maliki you coward,
don't take your advice from Iran'." AP goes
with the more conservative crowd estimate of "tens of thousands" of
people protesting. For a good photo from AP of the Falluja crowd, click here (photographer is Karim Kadim). Omar al-Saleh reported for today's Inside Story (Al Jazeera -- link is text and video):

Omar
al-Saleh: A show of support in Ramadi and Falluja for Iraqi Finance
Minister Rafia al-Issawi. During it's biggest rally in days in Anbar
Province, local leaders have called for civil disobedience and thousands
have blocked the highway linking Iraq to Jordan and Syria. They are
demanding the release of 9 bodyguards of the finance minister who were
arrested on Thursday [of last week]. But Rafia al-Issawi addressed the
crowd saying the issue now was bigger than his bodyguards.

Finance
Minister Rafia al-Issawi: This crowd is not political or sectarian.
But it represents all Iraqis who came to denounce the injustice and
marginalization. When we say the injustice has happened against Sunni
Arabs, that doesn't mean that we want to take the country to a civil
war.

Omar
al-Saleh: The protesters urged the Shi'ite-led government to stop its
sectarian approach and marginalization of Sunnis and their leaders but
the government continues to deny the accusation. Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki says the issue of the bodyguards is judicial and the role of
the state is to pursue wanted terrorists and not to support them. Many
feel the crisis may escalate.

Political
Analyst Watheq Alshashimi: The situation in Iraq may take a dangerous
direction as elections approach. What politicians are doing is
polarizing their supporters ethnically and based on sectarian
affiliatons. What's happening in Anbar can escalate and may lead to
more pressure on the prime minister.

Omar
al-Saleh: But other Sunni leaders accuse the president of trying to
consolidate his grip on power and target his political rivals. Tareq
al-Hashemi, Iraq's fugitive Vice President, has been sentence to death
in absentia for terrorism charges. He says the prime minister is
adopting sectarian policies. Adding to Iraq's political turmoil is the
looming confrontation between the Iraqi army and forces from the
semi-autonomous Kurdish north.

We
are only noting the report from that broadcasting. We are not noting
-- on the advice of a former Al Jazeera producer -- the 'discussion.' I
called him to ask what the hell was going on when this discussion was
planned? State of Law is invited on and goes on to trash Iraqiya --
Iraqiya has no one on to represent them. No one to challenge the lies
of State of Law? We're not interested in that nonsense but we do get
why Al Jazeera had to kill Inside Iraq -- they killed that program --
because the presenter wouldn't slant it towards Nouri al-Maliki. Even
when they pulled him off air as a threat, he refused to slant the
program. He played it fair, inviting all segments of Iraq onto his
show. And Al Jazeera had a problem with that. Which is why his program
is no longer on. We're noting the report, we're not noting a fixed
discussion that was fixed before a 'dialogue' even began.

As
noted earlier, Prashant Rao and other journalists were prevented from
entering to observe the Falluja protests; however, they were not the
only ones blocked from entering the province. Aswat al-Iraq notes,
"Police sources said here today that the army forces prevented Iraqi
delegations from other provinces from entering to participate in
Fallujah sit-in on the international highway." Al Jazeera (link has video) also goes with "thousands:"

Massive
demonstrations took place along a major highway near the city of
Fallujah on Friday, a day after thousands of protesters continued an
almost week-long blockade on a key highway in the western Anbar
province.

Protests erupted last week
after Iraqi authorities detained 10 bodyguards of the finance minister,
who is from Anbar and is one of the government's most senior Sunni
officials.Many Sunnis accuse Maliki of marginalising the country's
religious minority group by refusing to share power and depriving them
of equal rights.

Alsumaria notes
"hundreds" protested in Mosul at noon and their demands were similar
with the addition of they called for the execution of the soldier who
raped the young girl. All Iraq News adds that the protesters called for all charges against al-Issawi's bodyguards to be dropped. Alsumaria notes
that Samarra saw thousands turn out and their calls were similar but
they also want the long promised amnesty law implemented and they want
the Justice and Accountability Commission dissolved (the Commission was
used most infamously in the 2010 elections to disqualify various Sunnis
from running for office -- that includes the current Deputy Prime
Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq). AP adds that protests took place today in Tikrit as well. BBC News notes a Ramadi protest and that held "a mock funeral for the Iraqi judiciary."

Bill Van Auken (WSWS) observes:The
protests began last week after troops detained bodyguards and aides of
Finance Minister Rafie al-Essawi, while searching his home and offices
on December 20. The government has claimed that it arrested only ten of
the minister's bodyguards on charges of "terrorism." But Essawi, a
member of the secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, charged that over 100
people connected to his staff were rounded up by what he said was a
"militia force" controlled by Maliki's supporters.It appears
that the discrepancy arises from the fact that only the bodyguards
were subjected to formal arrest, while the others were essentially
subjected to extra-legal detention and interrogation.Addressing
Maliki in a statement to the Iraqi media, Essawi stated, "You are a man
who does not respect partnership at all, a man who does not respect the
law and the constitution, and I personally hold you fully responsible
for the safety of the kidnapped people."The finance minister
told Associated Press that Maliki was deliberately seeking to stoke
sectarian conflicts between the Sunni and Shia populations. "These
practices are aimed at drawing the country into a sectarian conflict
again by creating crisis and targeting prominent national figures," he
said.The incident was essentially a replay of a similar
crackdown carried out a year ago, on December 19, 2011, the day after
the last US troops ended the more than eight-year American occupation of
Iraq. Then the target was Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, also
a Sunni member of the Iraqiya bloc.

While the protests took place, Nouri attempted to distract by giving a speech. Alsumaria notes
he was forced to admit that the budget for 2013 (that should be Fiscal
Year 2013 unless something's changed) did not and would not improve the
problems facing Iraqi citizens. For those who may have stepped out of
the main room for a moment, that is no longer just the lack of basic
services like electricity, potable water, trash pick up, etc. No, add
flooding to the list as Iraq -- especially Baghdad -- finds itself
flooded as a result of Nouri's refusal for the last six years to spend
money on the infrastructure. Home are collapsing, the Iraqi Red
Crescent Society evacuated one village this month (the village is in
Wasit Province -- see Wednesday's snapshot). But Nouri says these problems will not be addressed in the budget. Karafillis Giannoulis (New Europe) notes
of Nouri's speech broadcast on Iraqi TV, "At a conference in Baghdad,
al-Maliki stressed that current tension can cause a return to the 'dark
days when people were killed because of their names or identities.' For
that reason Prime Minister of Iraq asked by the demonstrators to stop
protesting and promote dialogue instead." Why does that sound like a
threat? These protests can cause "dark days" to come back "when people
were killed because of their names or identities"? Maybe because
those dark days occurred most recently in Iraq during Nouri's first term
as prime minister and the Sunnis were the ones targeted by Nouri's
Ministry of the Interior forces? Maybe because that period of ethnic
cleansing was overseen by Nouri? As the editorial board of Gulf News points out,
"The sectarian drift of the Iraqi government, headed by Prime Minister
Nouri Al Maliki, needs to be reversed. Al Maliki is a leading Shiite
politician, but in his position as the head of a government, he needs to
serve the entire Iraqi population and his government must work to be
inclusive of all Iraqis — be they Shiite or Sunni; Kurdish or Turk;
Christian or Muslim. "

AFP, apparently with a straight face, reported
that Nouri was calling for dialogue and stating that nations have to
"rely on civil means of expression." Speaker of Parliament Osama
al-Nujaifi and President Jalal Talbani have been calling for a national
conference since December 21st and Nouri's blocked it and prevented it.

And
December 21st? Of 2011. For over a year, Nouri has blocked a
dialogue. Why? Because he got a second term due to the Erbil
Agreement. The voters didn't give him a second term, the 2010 election
results didn't give him a second term, the Constitution clearly didn't
give him a second term. But US President Barack Obama had a fondness
for Bully Boy Bush's puppet and Barack insisted Nouri get a second term
despite Nouri's State of Law coming in second in the 2010 elections.
Since there was no legal existing way for Nouri to get that term, Nouri
resulted to tantrums (bringing the country to a stand still for over
eight months) and the US resorted to a legal contract that they brokered
with Iraq's various political leaders: The Erbil Agreement. To end the
ongoing stalemate -- the longest period up to that time following an
election where a government still had not been seated, the leaders of
Iraq's political blocs agreed to allow Nouri a second term as prime
minister in exchange for his agreeing to various terms. Nouri used the
Erbil Agreement to get his second term and then broke the contract,
refusing to implement, for example, Article 140 of the Constitution,
refusing to create an independent national security council, and much
more. And the US let him get away with it. And covered for him. For
months, the political blocs practiced the 'patience' the US government
advised them on. By summer 2011, the Kurds, Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqiya
had reached the end of their waiting. They demanded that the contract
be returned to. This creates Political Stalemate II and is why
al-Nujaifi and Talabani have called for over a year for a national
conference to address these issues via dialogue.

Nouri wants to talk about the need for dialogue today and no one's going to call him on that?

Equally
true, the US government's backing Nouri is being noticed. It's being
noticed how unfairly others are treated as the US tries to repeatedly
force other groups to make concessions so Nouri can 'win.' David Romano (Rudaw) observed very accurately:

Average
Iraqis increasingly lose faith with their gvoernment as the shell game
continues. As Nuri al-Maliki increasingly rides rough shod over the
Constitution and the law of the land, the American State Department
seems to forgive him all his transgressions. Instead of demanding a
better showing from Maliki, they pressure the Kurds, the Sunnis and
non-Dawaa Party Shiites to make nice with Maliki.

It
is on the record, it is there for the history books. As Little Saddam
turns more and more into a despot, Barack Obama's non-stop defense of
him will be noted in the history books as well as the fact that the US
didn't hold Nouri in check but instead put pressure on other groups --
who were already being victimized by Nouri -- to ignore the abuse.

Over
six years in office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has proven to
be incapable of providing basic security and services to the people. By
openly advocating a conflict between Kurds and Arabs, he is threatening
the territorial integrity of Iraq and the success of the Kurdistan
Region of Iraq.

Nouri
al-Maliki is deliberately undermining the prospects of a prosperous Iraq
by threatening oil and gas supermajors against operating in Kurdistan,
withholding their revenues at ransom and barring them from auctions; his
foreign policy is a disaster, providing blatant support for Bashar
al-Assad's regime and his bloodshed while weakening ties with Iraq's
largest trading partner – Turkey; in the armed forces he openly incites
and promotes sectarianism and segregation in the mindset of a fragile
people.

The recent
unconstitutional creation of an overarching Tigris (Dijla) Operations
Command Centre to oversee the internal security affairs of the Northern
provinces is a stark reminder of the previous regime for our people;
al-Maliki also accuses our leadership of harassing local Arabs and other
ethnic minorities by piling our security and intelligence officers into
the largely Kurdish areas outside of our region - inaccurately referred
to as disputed territories. By way of a twisting media campaign
al-Maliki and his associates are masking failures by shifting attention
towards the largely peaceful Kurdistan Region.

Rather than fulfill that role, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has instead become an instrument of division.

It
has fostered conflict with the country's Kurdish and Sunni communities,
as well as other minorities, and has divided the oil revenue between
north and south, creating further splits.

The
government has proved that it is an Iranian-inspired, supported and
cultivated government, rather than one focused on the interests of the
Iraqis.

It has become riddled with
corruption that leaks billions of dollars. The extent of this is visible
in the suffering of the Iraqi people from a variety of social ills,
despite living in one of the most oil-rich countries in the region.

In other news, All Iraq News reports
that there's an update from the medical tem in Germany for Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani. They are stating that he is showing positive
improvement and that he is "responsive." After what? They don't say.
The President's office and family have not identified the health
condition that left Talabani hospitalized; however, Nouri al-Maliki's
office immediately declared it was a stroke. Al Mada notes
that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal's political party, is
calling for the media to be accurate when covering Talabani's
(unspecified) health condition. Meanwhile Rebwar Karim Wali (Rudaw) states,
"Statements and interviews by Talabani's close associates demonstrate
that they have started to come to terms with the reality that the
veteran 79-year-old leader may not be able to resume his duties, and
each has began to vie for the leadership post." Of Talabani
contributions and importance, Raghid al-Solh (Al-Khallej via Al-Monitor) notes:

In
the past few days, the health of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has
captured public attention, both on the Arab and international levels.
This concern was not due to the status of the Iraqi presidency, but to
the status of the Iraqi president himself. Talabani is a prominent
international figure. He has acquired this status as a result of his
qualities of moderation, wisdom and flexibility -- which have almost
made him an Iraqi national symbol -- as well as a result of his role as a
Kurdish leader.

If Talabani is forced to step down from the Iraqi presidency, the voice of moderation in Iraqi politics will be weakened.

And
the reports of allegations and torture and what Committees in
Parliament have discovered, led to Nouri's freak out where he threatened
to arrest members of Parliament who talked about the torture and rape.
Yesterday, he was insisting he had the power to do so. Al Mada notes today that Nouri's remarks are in conflict with the Iraqi Constitution.

Article 63:

First:
A law shall regulate the rights and privileges of the speaker of the
Council of Representatives, his two deputies, and the members of the
Council of Representatives.

Second:
A. A member of the Council of Representatives shall enjoy immunity for
statements made while the Council is in session, and the member may not
be prosecuted before the courts for such.

B.
A Council of Representatives member may not be placed under arrest
during the legislative term of the Council of Representatives, unless
the member is accused of a felony and the Council of Representatives
members consent by an absoulte majority to lift his immunity or if he is
caught in flagrante delicto in the commission of a felony.

C. A Council of Representatives member may not be arrested after the
legislative term of the Council of Representatives, unless the member is
accused of a felony and with the consent of the speaker of the Council
of Representatives to lift his immunity or if he is caught in flagrante
delicto in the commission of a felony.

No,
that is not in keeping with the claims Nouri's made this week that he
will just strip MPs of their immunity and have them arrested. The above
section of the Constitution is very clear. But Nouri's never really
abided by or honored the Iraq Constitution.

All Iraq News reports
today that Adel Abdullah has stated that Nouri's statements regarding
stripping immunity are not constitutional, are not part of the framework
of democracy and that the PUK demands that Nouri back off from this
unconstitutional stance and stop attempting to muzzle free speech.

Alsumaria notes
that the home of a city administrator in Baiji was bombed today -- no
one was at the house at the time. The month of December (and the year
2012) is winding down. December has been a violent month in Iraq with Iraq Body Count recording 223 deaths from violence this month through Wednesday. AFP's Prashant Rao Tweets:

And you can click here for AFP's
recorded deaths, Rao has made it available in spread sheet form. Not
just today, it's been available for most of the month and he plans to
keep it available for the near future. He and AFP deserve a big thank you for that. This is not the ministries count, this is the count AFP tabulates each day. (And let me start the thank you train: Thank you, AFP, for keeping your own count -- something all outlets did during Vietnam but something that only AP and AFP have done during the Iraq War -- AP and AFP
have kept their own count throughout, others did not keep it one in
2003 or any of the years followed. Thank you now for sharing the count
in a way that makes it even more open and accessible. Whether your
numbers or higher or lower than I might believe the month called for, I
do appreciate that your figures are publicly out there and hope it will
lead other outlets covering Iraq to include your count as a reference
point when noting the monthly figures released by the Iraqi government
ministries. Again, thank you very much.)